Poland probes leak of secret files from govt taping inquiry

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish prosecutors are investigating the publication of classified files from a probe into the illegal taping of government ministers.

The secret taping of restaurant conversations of ministers revealed last year shook the Cabinet of then-Prime Minister Donald Tusk and cost the interior minister his position. Two waiters have been arrested and a businessman has been charged in the probe, but has told reporters that he had claimed his innocence. Parts of the conversations made it into a weekly magazine, sparking off a scandal and the probe.

Hundreds of pages of files from that probe including personal data were published late Monday on a private Facebook account, prompting politicians and members of the Civic Platform party government to speak of an unprecedented leak that was undermining the state.

But a spokesman for Warsaw prosecutors, Przemyslaw Nowak, said Tuesday that it was a case of illegal publication of classified information. Anyone convicted in the case could face up to two years in prison. The files were available to the suspects, the plaintiffs and their legal representatives, but they were banned from publishing them.

The new scandal further undermines the Civic Platform party's position ahead of the fall parliamentary election. In the presidential election last month, incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski, who is linked to the party, was defeated by opposition candidate Andrzej Duda, who takes office Aug.6.